This morning the stereo is on for the first time in three days. You know that shit is getting serious when music isn't playing on board Double Diamond. And serious it has been the past few days. Not serious in the sense that our boat was in any danger or that anyone was about to die. Far from it. At the same time, the winds have been blowing stronger than is comfortable for us, for anyone really, save a superyacht or a cruise ship. The seas have been big, rocking us around, slamming us against walls and sliding things off of tables and counters.

I know, I know. That's not supposed to happen on catamarans. But folks, it just DOES sorry to say. When the waves are three to four meters tall (12 to 16 feet for you Amurycans) and the winds are blowing 35 knots, even catamarans get pushed around. It's true.

For the last 3 days it's been this way. What to do? Slow the boat down for one thing. Reef the sails to as small as they go, relieving the strong air pressure pushing the boat, which in turn takes the building speed out of the boat.

The result? The boat gets quieter from not literally leaping over the waves and slamming into the trough below. The groaning and humming of the mast and rigging goes away. The boat just feels lighter, less stressed. On a monohull, the boat would stand up straighter - on a catamaran, the signs that the boat is "over canvassed" are a bit more subtle. Certainly slowing the boat down is safer in terms of reducing the chance that all the force of the wind will break something, which is (or should be) rule number one for a cruising boat. Don't break anything!

It's days like the last few that make you question: Why do this? I can only imagine how some others feel who got so sea sick the last few days that they stopped their boat altogether and hove to. Goofy thing is we didn't HAVE to sail away from New Zealand when we did. We saw the weather forecasts and got pretty much what was advertised for this section of the passage - although that's not entirely true. We expected 25 knots and 2 meters seas - which is what we have now. We're calling it The New Calm, even though really, it's not.

Regardless, departing when we did was a choice we made and nothing was foisted upon us. No one boarded our boat and said: "LEAVE! NOW!" guns drawn. The nice New Zealand Customs guys who checked us out of the country didn't even carry guns. We could have stayed. Easy.

In the end, Double Diamond handled everything beautifully. It's us that had troubles, if troubles are what we had. Kind of an enforced, at sea cabin fever might be the best description. Now that the weather has broken, perhaps we can get back to a brand of sailing we enjoy. Downwind, sunny skies, spinnaker up.

BTW, What's playing while this was being written is Phosphorescent's album Muchacho. Don't know why, maybe because it's vaguely Hymnal? Next up... Something lighter, poppy. Lusine?